BYOC and sheer disgust!

1. If you could be a flower, which one would it be and why?


I would say a hibiscus because they are full of color and life and super tropical looking, which is where I would like to live...somewhere tropical!
 
2. Which Sex and The City Character do you most relate to?
 
I guess Charlotte. I think Miranda is mean as hell and she gets on my nerves so it sure isn't her. Samantha sleeps around too much for my taste and Carrie seems like she never really knows what she wants in life. So that leaves Charlotte who is the more, put together of them all. (shrugs)
 
3. If you had a crystal ball or could know one thing about the future - what would it be?


I would want to know how man children I will have in my lifetime, if any.
 
4. What's your biggest fear in your weight loss journey?


That I will reach my goal and will not be happy with myself still. I am already starting to do the whole "Yeah I know I have gotten smaller but now I am flabbier" crap. Just replacing one problem with another. That and I am afraid that I will make goal and then bounce back to where I started within a year.
 
5. Repeat question: Whose blog or comment spoke to you the most this week and why?


Once again, I didn't get to read that many this week as I have been working on finishing blogs from start to finish but I did happen to see the post that Band Groupie posted with her in her new bathing suit. I thought that was brave showing us the parts of her that she hates the most (which honestly didn't look bad at all, IMO!) Way to go BG!
 
So I have been reading Southern Belle's blog all week trying to finish it (it's a looong one) haha. But so far so good. I am hoping to finish it today so I can start a new one. So I list her for #5 too! I have loved reading her Blog. She posts tons of good pictures!
 
Now on to my sheer disgust! Ok I have conducted this little experiment this week food wise. So on Tuesday for lunch,  I had a grilled shrimp baked potato with butter, cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and jalapenos. CARBS! I had no carbs at dinner though. In fact I didn't eat much at dinner at all. What happened? You guessed it! When I hopped on the scale the next morning I had gained .6lbs! Ok so then Wednesday I had NO CARBS....except for my oatmeal for breakfast and what happens??? Yup, I weighed the next morning and lost .6lbs!!! So I had bought this Palermo ultra thin crust supreme pizza with an all natural crust and ate like 3 small slices for lunch and then ate the other 3 slices for dinner (this pizza is barely medium sized, btw) and that's all I had all day besides my oatmeal for breakfast and guess what???? Yup, that's right! I weighed this morning and gained back the stupid .6lbs!!! WTF??? So it's proven, on the days I ate a good amount of carbs I gain and days that I don't I lose! That is crap! I love carbs, dang it! It's not fair! Carbs just stick to me! :***( poop what to do?
 
Ah well, have a super duper weekend everyone!

Oh I almost forgot to mention that I got Zumba in the mail yesterday at work and one of my friends from work and I looked at the basics to learn some of the moves and it looked very interesting. So when I got home I did the basics all the way through (took a whole HOUR!) and it busted my butt!!! I was pouring sweat at the end and was about to pass out. It wore me out so bad that I actually went to bed at like 7:30 last night when I usually stay awake until 11 or 12midnight. How out of shape am I???? Geesh!

3 Month Bandiversary

Yup, that's right! Today makes 3 months since I got banded. Wow, how time flies. When I think about this it is a bit depressing knowing that I have had the band for that long and have only lost 11 pounds with it (the other 13 was from the pre-op diet). I mean seriously, 11lbs in 3 months? That's only roughly .9lbs per week. That just seems crappy to me. I kind of let myself down a little during this period of time because I know that I could have done better than this. I gotta step up my game and bust my butt.

New mini goal:

#1 Get to 176lbs by my birthday (June 13th). That's 7lbs to lose in 18 days. I think that's totally doable if I work really hard! I chose 176 because that will mark my 30lbs loss!

Going to the gym again today...man...I can't wait until my Zumba comes in. I plan on doing that especially on days that I don't go to the gym and probably even on some days that I do go to the gym! :) Excited about that. Figured I'd throw out what I ate today just for the heck of it:

Morning Drink: Hot green tea with 1 splenda
B: Orange Cranberry Muffin oatmeal by Ocean Spray (yummy!!!)
1 bottle of water
L: hamburger patty chopped up and mixed with jalapenos, tomato, and some mayo/mustard. It's like a burger salad but I have not been eating lettuce (I am afeared...yeah I know I spelled it wrong on purpose!)
Also had a couple bites of broccoli and cheese sauce-I only ate half of my burger salad (good restriction)
2 bottles of water
Midday snack: the other 1/2 of my burger salad (only maybe 4 bites)
1 bottle of water with 1/2 packet of green tea peach mango Crystal Light in it.
Post gym snack: 4 jalapeno smokehouse almonds
Dinner: grilled chicken breast and yams (mmmm....)
Dessert: Jello Chocolate Mousse (if I feel like it)

for a grand total of : 863 calories

Not bad huh? That doesn't count what I will burn at the gym either so hopefully I will see at least a tiny loss on the scale in the morning! ;p

Weigh Day, Fish, and Zumba!

Hello all, it's Monday...yay, NOT! I don't have much time because I just now got the chance to do my post and I get off of work in a just a lil bit so I thought I would just drop in momentarily since it's weigh day and all!

So....I am down to 183lbs. I am kinda perterbed (spelling?) that I have only lost 2 lbs in the last week. I know any loss should be appreciated but damn! Seriously? It's like I will lose 3 or 4 lbs after a fill and then I stall there for a month! I know I have great restriction right now. I am hardly ever hungry so I try and only eat when I am REALLY hungry, like when my stomach starts growling and I can feel the hunger. I have been watching my calories and keeping it under 1200 at least and trying to watch my carb intake and keeping it under 70g a day (I read that that is the max number of carbs you should have a day if you're trying to lose weight). That's not so hard to do because it's just enough to satisfy my carb tooth. hehe But then the nurse told me at my last fill that I should cut out carbs completely to get past my plateaus and that the weight would melt off of me. It's hard to cut out EVERYTHING though. I am just dangling by the 170's and I am stuck as usual AGAIN!

Flounder: Some of you may remember a while back I said that I don't like fish but that I want to get myself used to eating it. Well, I finally tried grilled flounder for the first time at lunch today from a local seafood restaurant and it was.......DELICIOUS!!! I absolutely loved it! I can honestly say I liked it better than most meats I try like pork chops and stuff. I could only eat my 5 tiny bites of it and I saved the rest. Now that I have overcome my fear of fish I would like to try mahi mahi and tilapia, which I plan on doing the next time we go out to eat somewhere. :) YAY FOR ME!

Zumba: I keep seeing infomercials on Zumba and after seeing them and hearing the stories about it from all of you ladies I have decided to order the DVD set today. It looks like loads of fun and I love the claim that it can burn up to 1,000 per hour! What a workout huh? Can't wait to get it in and try it out. Maybe it can help kick my ass into the 170's!

Tata everyone!

BYOC Friday...woop woop

Let's get it started in here...woo hooo....

1. If you had 3 wishes what would they be and why?

First I would wish to be at my goal weight right now! Second, I would wish for a nice big house of our own. Third, I would wish to be able to eat whatever I want in abundant amounts and not gain any weight ever again! :) Haha, no j/k on that one. I would probably wish for lifelong health for myself and friends and family.

2. If you had all the money in the world and perfect circumstances - how many children would you have and what sex?

I would have 2 kids. One girl, one boy.

3. Have you ever faked it? (Because I need to laugh...feel free to skip this one if it's too personal.)


haha good one! Nope, I have never faked it. He always told me not to do that to him because it's cruel in his eyes. So I haven't and luckily I really don't need to (wink wink)
 
4. What movie character do you think you look like?



Well, I don't know about movie characters but sometimes I resemble Kelly Clarkson. haha!!!
 
5. Repeat question. Which blog or comment spoke to you or stuck with you this week and why?


This week I have been reading one blog at a time from beginning to end. So I will note which ones I have completed so far this week:
 
Joey  @Volume Control and LD Swims @ A Journey to Embrace. Both had some excellent posts that were very inspiring. Thanks ladies!
Comments: All the congrats I got for getting to an all time low on lbs so far! :) Thanks everyone!
 
Oh and here's a couple NSV's for the week. I bought 2 shirts from Wally World and they were both size smalls and they fit! Also, I bought a grey and blue pinstripe slacks like 3 years ago and they are size 10's. Well I couldn't fit in them when I bought them, not even close. The zipper and button is on the hip instead of in the front and I have tried them on several times and have never even been able to zip them. But I kept them just in case one day I decided to get off of my ass and lose weight. So I tried them on today and....they zipped and buttoned!!!! They are still a little too tight for my taste but soon they will be wearable! :) yay yay yay!
 
Have a good weekend everyone!

Some New Pics and a lil food porn again!

Hola everyone! Thanks to all of your congrats from my post from yesterday! ;) I am excited about the fill size this time. I think it might do wonders for me. I am on day 3 of liquids so tomorrow softies will begin. I think softies will be fine too because some of the soups I eat during this phase are aren't too thin and so far so good. Also!!!!!! The most exciting news of the day for me....I weighed this morning and OH MY GOSH! I am at 183.6lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! aHhhhhhhhhhahahahaHHHHaaahhhh I am soooo excited. I just skipped right past 184 and into 183! I am hoping I can keep this trend up and not gain back these pounds like I did after the last fill. The 170's are right around the corner and I couldn't be more thrilled to hit that soon.We shall see!!!

I haven't posted pictures in while so:

Me at Joe's Crabshack on Mother's Day and sister Julie's bday. If you look closely you can see the little shark attached to my class. This mixed drink was called the Shark Bite and the little shark came with a shot of grenadine so when you pour it into the blue drink it looks like blood in ocean water! Get it??? Shark Bite??? hehe it was good but I gave most of it to my sister to save calories! :) hehe

My sister Lori and me at Joe's Crabshack. She is only 18! Everyone says she looks older than me but I am 5 years older than her!

This was taken last Saturday at a Hibatchi Japanese Restaurant. It was the first time any of us had been to the Hibatchi. From left to right: Rickey(Ryan's Bestie) Kitti (Rickey's wife), Mary, James(Rickey's cousin), and my hubby, Ryan.

My sister Amber, me, and my sister Julie at the Hibatchi. This picture does not flatter my features at all!!! My face looks huge in it, I promise it's not that big in person! My sisters look cute though! :)

Here the Hibatchi chef is cooking up some super yummy food! I mean it was absolutely fantastic and he did all kinds of trick with the food and put on a great show. The lemon shrimp were delish and it was really neat watching him make the chicken fried rice!

Here is my plate: I ordered the Hibatchi steak with bean sprouts, onions, and sesame zucchini. I ate several bites of the chicken fried rice but stopped myself. It was hard because it was spectacular and yes, I know how to use chopsticks decently. :) The leftovers are still in the fridge and I am on liquids!!! Boo hoo!

Weigh Day and 3rd Fill update

Sorry I didn't get to post all of this yesterday but I had to leave work to go to my appt and didn't have time to get anything out here. So first off, yesterday was weigh day....dun dun duh...185.0!!! So here I sit at my all time low (I have been here before recently but only briefly). This number seems to be my plateau weight because it is the lowest I have gotten throughout the whole process and every time I get to it, it lasts only a day and then I pop back up to 186 or 187! Hopefully now that I got a fill yesterday that number will only go down from now on. I can't imagine getting to the 170's. I haven't been there since I was like 19 and I was only there for maybe 2 months and then gained!

The fill: I let Connie, the nurse, know that I felt that I could eat way too much so she they took a barium x-ray to see if there was any pouch stretching (as I requested) and she said everything looked "wonderful", no stretching at all and she definitely agreed that I needed a good fill because that chalky liquid they give you to drink to do the x-ray just flew straight through. So she said since I have been doing well with the .5cc fills she was going to go up to a .8cc fill and see how that works. So she did it and then they took another x-ray and she said that she would like to put more because my stomach didn't look irritated from the fill at all. So she gave me another .5cc and did another x-ray and she said if it was ok with me she would like to put another .5cc in and I was like sure and she did and she stopped there. No problem! So that was a fill of 1.8cc for a grand total of 7.5cc in my band! I am hoping that this will make a huge difference.

I haven't had a problem yet but I am STARVING!!!!! I am sooo very hungry! My stomach will not stop growling and the consultant told me that since I had such a large fill this time that I should do an extra day of liquids. That means 3 days of liquids and one day of soft foods! Do wha???? That sucks. She also told me not to have any creamy soups during this time and I am going to have to ignore that because that's how I survive during these liquid days, broccoli cheese or baked potato soup! I am trying to stay away from the potato though. They warned me again about eating carbs so much and said that it's most likely the cause of my weight loss stall/plateau. Hopefully these liquid days go by fast!

BYOC Friday...Better Late than Never!

Hola peeps! Here we go again:

1. If you could be a cartoon character – who would you be and why?


I would be Ariel from the Little Mermaid because who wouldn't love to be a mermaid for one and for two she is super hott with her long red hair and she can sing so lovely! And she gets a super hot prince at the end and is friends with all kinds of animals. My kinda gal!
 
2. Who was your teenage heart throb?
 
Jay Hernandez from Crazy Beautiful!!! Oh my gosh I thought I was in love with him. And he is still super hott so yeah! I was sooo stalker that even implanted myself in pictures with him on my computer. Oh yeah, we rode rollercoasters together and went to the movies!!! hahaha lmao those were the days!
 
3.Do you believe being overweight is about a mental obstacle or do you believe it’s simply about overeating/food?
 
For me, it's mostly overeating and loving food more than emotions. Some people eat when they are down/upset/mad etc. but I eat for every emotion good or bad. But I eat because I LOVE food. I love the tastes, the textures, the smells, everything!!! Food excites me more than almost anything. (sad but true)
 
4. What’s your all-time favorite song?



Man, I have so many favorites. I guess I would have to say right now it's Purple Rain. I have been on a Purple Rain kick for a while now and just recently saw the movie all the way through and I absolutely loved it and it made me love the song even more!

5. Whose blog or comment spoke to you/stuck with you this week and why? This is our “you get to be famous for a moment” without having to follow all the rules of an official blog award question.


Well, dang! Honestly I haven't been able to catch up on all my blogs this week. I have been trying a new method and have been going down my list of those I follow from the dashboard and reading their blogs from beginning to end so that I can get to know people better and read all the things I missed before I started following them. So I will say I have finished T. Michelle's blog and I am glad I read from the beginning. It was very inspiring to read about her journey and the great things she has done so far.  Way to go girl!
 
Have a great weekend everybody!